Planar Seal
| rarity = Uncommon | type = Global Enchantment | casting_cost = | upkeep_cost = | research_cost = | effects = While the spell is in effect it is virtually impossible for any Wizard to move any units from one Plane to the other. }} Planar Seal is an Uncommon Global Enchantment belonging to the realm. For it may be cast on the overland map to create a magical seal separating the two Planes, so that units may not cross between them in almost any way. Towers of Wizardry have no effect, nor do spells like Planar Travel, Astral Gate and so on. The spell has an Upkeep Cost of per turn. Effects Planar Seal physically bars movement from Arcanus to Myrror and vice-versa. There are only a few esoteric ways to move units between the two planes while this spell is in effect. Towers of Wizardry While Planar Seal is in effect, units may not use Towers of Wizardry to cross between the Planes. Even if a Tower is liberated, an army stack standing on a tower in one plane cannot cross into the other plane. If the "Plane" button is clicked, the game will show the other plane but the unit will remain in the previous Plane. Note that the Towers themselves may still be liberated as normal, and will be usable as normal to any unit once Planar Seal is removed. Plane Shift Spell While Planar Seal is in effect, the Plane Shift spell has no effect. You may still cast the spell, but it will immediately fail with an on-screen error message, wasting its entire Casting Cost. The game will warn you if you try to cast the Plane Shift Spell while Planar Seal is active. The warning indicates that the spell will have no effect, allowing you to reconsider. You may still decide to keep casting the spell, but as mentioned above, this can lead to a waste of . Plane Shift Ability and Planar Travel A unit possessing the Plane Shift ability or enchanted with the Planar Travel spell may not cross to the other plane while Planar Seal is in effect. If the unit is selected, and the "Plane" button is clicked, the game will pop-up an error message saying that the move to the other plane is not allowed. The game will also refuse to switch the view to the other plane while such a unit is selected. This can cause some annoyance: you'd have to de-select the unit first (or select another unit) in order to switch the view at all. If you are going to cast Planar Seal, make sure your plane-traveling units are on the correct plane before doing so. This can be tricky - you have to select the unit, use the "Plane" button to put it on the desired plane, then de-select the unit before making any view switches to ensure that it doesn't switch planes together with the view. This can be tricky, but helps avoid situations where a unit is stuck on the wrong plane after the Planar Seal is cast. If you do not intend to remove Planar Seal (or have no way to remove an opponent's Planar Seal anytime soon), consider dispelling any Planar Travel spells you have on your units - they are just sucking out your on their Upkeep Costs for no benefit whatsoever! Astral Gate The Astral Gate is also inactive while Planar Seal is in effect. If you select a unit inside a town containing an Astral Gate, then click the "Plane" button, the game will pop-up an error message indicating that the unit may not move to the other plane. The view will not switch to the other plane either. As with Planar Travel above, to view the other plane at all you would first need to de-select the unit or move it out of the enchanted town, and only then you can click the "Plane" button to see the other plane at all. If you do not intend to remove Planar Seal (or have no way to remove an opponent's Planar Seal anytime soon), consider dispelling any Astral Gate spells you have on your towns - they are just sucking out your on their Upkeep Costs for no benefit whatsoever! Bypassing Planar Seal There is at least one way to get past a Planar Seal spell. If you have any additional methods of doing so, please add them here. Word of Recall :The spell "Word of Recall" can be used effectively to move units from one Plane to the other, even when Planar Seal is in effect. :To do this, cast the Summoning Circle spell on any town in the desired destination plane. Then cast Word of Recall on the stack containing the unit you wish to move. Select the desired unit, and it will be teleported to the town containing the Summoning Circle. :The whole affair costs , making it even cheaper than Plane Shift. However, it does require you to have at least one town in the destination plane, and means that you'll need to transfer units one by one (whereas Plane Shift would move the entire stack). Recall Hero :The spell "Recall Hero" can be used effectively to move Heroes from one Plane to the other, even when Planar Seal is in effect. :To do this, first cast the Summoning Circle spell on any town in the desired destination plane. Then, send your Hero to engage an enemy army in combat. Any combat will do, including Encounters. During the battle (preferably as soon as possible), cast Recall Hero on your unit. The selected Hero will instantly be transferred to the selected town. :Note that this is somewhat risky: by triggering combat, you risk losing your Hero before you get the chance to teleport him out of combat. This is especially true if you send your Hero to engage a rival wizard's army, especially a wizard who likes using direct-damage spells. Armies with many strong Ranged Attack or Teleporting units can also kill your Hero before you get the chance to cast Recall Hero at all. Move Fortress The spell "Move Fortress" is also not effected by a Planar Seal, The wizard's fortress may be freely moved from town to town in either Plane. Usage Planar Seal may be cast only on the overland map, for the considerable Casting Cost of . It will immediately go into effect, as per the rules explained above. Units that possess Planar Travel or the inherent Plane Shift ability will remain stuck on whatever Plane they were in before the spell was cast. Note that it is sometimes difficult to tell which plane they are on - de-select the unit when it is on the correct plane before casting this spell. To keep Planar Seal in effect, the casting wizard must pay an Upkeep Cost of per turn. Failure to pay this cost due to lack of will cause the spell to dissipate, no longer healing units. After casting the spell, its name will appear on the "Overland Enchantments" list in the Magic menu. The color in which the name is printed indicates which wizard controls the spell. If the player controls the spell, he or she may cancel it manually by clicking the name of the spell. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus conserving for other spells. Acquisition As an Uncommon spell, Planar Seal may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Spellbook. However, its availability during the game is almost never guaranteed. Customized Wizards possessing Spellbooks at creation time may choose this spell as one of their default spells before starting the game, in which case the spell will already be researched and available for casting immediately on the first turn. Wizards who possess at least Spellbooks, or Wizards with Spellbooks who did not select Planar Seal as a guaranteed spell, will be able to Research this spell at some point during their campaign. Wizards with fewer than Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research it. The chance for this spell to appear increases with the number of Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. Planar Seal has a base Research Cost of . With at least Spellbook, the Planar Seal spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell. Strategy Planar Seal can be very useful for keeping rival wizards confined to another Plane. There are several instances where this can become very crucial. The first and most obvious instance is when playing a Myrran wizard. By casting Planar Seal, it is possible to keep Myrror free of rival wizards (unless one or more already have a presence on this plane). This can buy a lot of time for expansion, defeating Encounters and taking over Nodes - allowing the casting wizard to become extremely powerful by the time the planes are unsealed - leading to a sudden and effective invasion of Arcanus. Conversely, Planar Seal can be used to prevent a Myrran wizard from gaining a foothold on Arcanus. Such wizards can be quite dangerous in the later game, since (as explained above) they usually have the time and means to gather a lot of power. Trapping them on their own plane may be risky (giving them even more time and safety to expand and grow stronger) but it may still be preferable to allowing them free access to Arcanus resources. Planar Seal is also good for cutting an empire in half. This is very useful when a rival wizard has towns on both planes. You can cut off towns in one Plane from being reinforced from the other Plane, thus making a portion of that empire easier to take over. The rest of that empire can then be conquered at a later time. When casting Planar Seal, always ensure the following: # All your Plane Shifting units are on the correct plane. Select each unit, click the "Plane" button to put them on the right plane, then de-select to prevent them from mistakenly moving to the other plane. # If you intend to keep Planar Seal for some time, cancel all Planar Travel and Astral Gate spells first. They will only eat up valuable while Planar Seal is in effect. Category:Global Enchantments Category:Life Category:Unit Movement